Once Again
by Adri
Summary: A seriously unexpected visitor from Spike's past shows up to fight a common enemy.


Title: Once Again   
Author: Moi :)   
Rating: I'm going for an PG-13 right now cuz it's pretty tame, but it may turn into an NC-17, I dunno yet. Yeah, big jump.   
Summary: A visitor no one expects in Sunnydale. Gee..   
Comments: Willow with Oz, still uses magic. Spike not with Buffy or Dru, but has the chip. Xander with Anya. Joyce dead, uh.. Angel in LA, Cordy in LA, Glory not dead. Any questions?   
Comments(2): First attempt at Fanfic.. I know it sucks. Don't bother to tell me that.   
  
  
  
  
** Once Again**   
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Prague -- 1900  
  
The tiny figure creeped stealthily into the shadowed garden, the only light coming from the burning stacks of hay in the nearby fields. The figure slowly made her way to the porch behind the house, pausing cautiously at each strange sound. As she made her way to the vine covered railing, a young woman burst through the doors, her skirts flying behind her as vampirish beings followed her in a deathly chase. The young woman spied the figure crouching in the bushes, just as the creatures behind her sensed her as well. 

"NAIYA!" The woman lunged for the tiny child as she saw the vampires beging to change their course towards the girl. Before she could rescue the little one, Naiya was snatched away by a tall female vampire who held tightly onto the squirming child. A tall man stepped between the mother and daughter, forcefully pushing them away from each other. 

"Hello Karis." He said in a clipped british accent. "It's been a long time." Karis sent him a glare promising him death if he harmed her Naiya. 

"Give me my daughter, William." She replied in cold tones. His pale face broke out into a deadly grin, as he motioned to the female vamp. 

"Darling, why don't you let Karis see her daughter." The vamp smiled, her face changing to it's demoned features. She threw the girl at Karis, who caught her gratefully. She hugged the little girl, and glared at the vampires. Before she could say anything about them leaving, she felt her daughter shift violently, and leaned back to look at her. 

"Mami, I'm hungry." Naiya whined mournfully, her face showing the same demon as the vampires'. Karis gasped and fell to the ground, letting Naiya slide away and trot to the male vampire. "Uncle, can I have a snack?" 

"Yes, love, go ahead. I think your daddy still has some blood left." The little girl laughed and ran into the house, where she found her prone father unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. Gleefully, she sunk her tiny fangs into his neck. 

Karis' eyes filled with tears as it hit her what had happened, her daughter, her baby was now a demon living off human blood. Karis stared at the vampires, hate filling her eyes. The male vampire laughed and clapped his hands together. 

"Naiya!" He called, and she poked her head out of the door, remnants of blood dropping from her lips. "Are you still hungry? I think your Mother has a snack for you." Karis eyes flooded over. She was not afraid of the bloodsucking, but it broke her heart to have to be a snack for her daughter. Naiya grinned maliciously, running over and climbing on her mother's lap. 

"Now, Mummy this won't hurt a bit. Why, you won't even feel it after a while." Before Naiya could press her sharp little fangs against the human throat, Karis felt a sharp poke in her shoulder, right where her daughters chest rested. Karis' eyes widened. 

"Noo!!!!!" She screamed as dust covered her, raining down from the stake driven through Naiya's heart. The male vampire advanced on Karis with a dagger and a lethal look in his eye. 

"Now this is the fun part, pet." 

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LA -- 7:55pm 2002 

Karis bolted up in the middle of the bed, her eyes wide and the scream dying on her lips. It would never leave her, the memory of that awful night. It had stayed with her for the hundred odd years since then, and would forever, just like the scar that ran across her chin. 

Karis slowly laid back down, her fingers tracing the scar as she stared at the ceiling for a while, until a loud buzzing startled her and she glanced over onto table beside her and shut the alarm off. 8 pm. Time to get up and face a new day -- or night, whatever. 

She groaned when she remembered what she had planned on doing tonight. Searching through the local clubs for a certain half breed demon didn't interest her in the least. She hated LA and all it's smells and crowded streets. The city made her head hurt. She rolled out of bed and prepared for her night's work. Halfway through her breakfast of human blood, she changed her mind and stood up, leaving the cup on the table. Karis grabed her hooded sweatshirt off the chair and her car keys off the hook. If she left now, she thought with a quick glance at the nearby clock, she could make it to the Hellmouth nearby, and warn the resident slayer of a rather powerful demon that was rumored to be making it's appearance there soon. She sighed, damn slayers, and their "I'm gonna save the world" attitude. 

the BRONZE : SunnyDale-- Sometime after midnight. 

Spike let his eyes wander through the smokey club as he leaned against the wall in a dark corner. He searched out his friends, all doing the same thing he was doing; waiting for a very powerful demon to make himself known in a fiery flash of power in the middle of the dance floor. The five friends unfortunately didn't know which seemingly harmless person in the club was the demon. As Spike waited, he wondered again for the tenth time that evening why he was here. He had to get his kicks in somewheres, he supposed. With the damn chip in his head, he couldn't very well go around killing his meals, now could he. He helped fight the good fight, however grudgingly. Besides one of these days he'd get this blasted chip out. Then the slayer would be sorry. He met Giles' eyes across the room as they shared an awkward mistrustful look. Giles would never fully understand why he stayed in town, why he didn't just go elsewhere. There was too much bad blood between them, no pun intended. In the middle of a tense moment between the two men, a fight broke out on the dancefloor, as the demon finally showed himself. The five friends launched themselves at the demon. 

Karis sat back at her table and watched the scene with interest. So this was the local crew of do-gooders, huh. Every town had one, especially hellmouths. She had seen the same pattern over the years. A group of eclectic losers would see what was happening in their town with all the vampires and random demons and try to put a stop to it. Half the time they provided amusement for the demons and they most always failed. The only thing that was different about this town, was that this one had a Slayer, one of the strongest that the damned Council of Watchers had ever seen. Karis rolled her eyes as her thoughts turned to the Council. They were nothing but thorns in her side, sending this slayer and that slayer after her over the course of her uh.. existance. She had killed them all or had injured them so badly, they were a perfect meal for another demon. She wondered a little what they would think if they knew she was this close to the current slayer without them knowing. She chuckled softly. 

After the fight, the group gathered around the one table that was still standing in the now empty club. The fight had been gruesome, but not one fatality of an innocent. 

"Ew, Ew, Ew!" Willow spat disgustedly. "I will never get used to the green goo stuff." She wiped at her red hair, smearing the slime even more. Oz handed her a small towel with a sympathetic look. 

"Everyone ready? I would like to get back and see what we can find out about this demon, I do believe there should have been more of them in town. They usually travel in packs." Giles looked anxious to go, and started ushering his young friends out of the club. Spike was the last one out. Something didn't seem right to him. 

As he took a last look around the now-demolished club, he heard the sound of a lighter being flicked in the distance. A small flame seen out of the corner of his eye brought his face to his left side where the cherry on a cigarette lit up in the dark. Game face on, he went to investigate. Before he reached the object of his senses, he heard clapping coming from the same direction as the person -no demon, stepped out of the shadows. She stood with her head down with her face covered by the beat up leather cowboy hat she wore. Blowing a steady stream of blue-tinged smoke out of her mouth, she raised her head. Spike's face slipped back to human as he gazed in astonishment at a being he hadn't seen since his romp through Prague with Dru. She was his best hunting mate at one time, before her curse anyway; and his grandsire's only true temptation carried over from that period. 

Karis. She smiled at him, mock approval gracing her scarred features. 

"Wonderful, Spike. So, found yourself a hellmouth to fight the good fight in, eh? Who would have thought..." She mused aloud; her melodic voice carrying a faint hint of mocking sweetness. Spike swallowed needlessly. His cold hands became colder as he looked at a ghost. 

"I.. killed you." He choked out. There was no way she could be here, standing in front of him. She was dead, buried, he had made sure of that. 

"Well, next time you kill me, stick around long enough to make sure I stay dead." Vamping out, Karis hopped over a fallen table, her black leather coat trailing silently behind her as she slowly stalked him. "Not that there will be a next time, you understand, because I fully intend on killing you now." Snarling, she leapt at him, ripping her claws down his chest on the way down as he struggled to fight back. Slowly, methodically, as a cat would would play with a mouse, she fought him. Within a few minutes, she had him pinned against the wall, stake in her hand. 

"Save me a seat in hell, Spike." Karis brought the stake down swiftly, only to have it stopped by a pair of tanned arms. Growling furiously, she glared at the intruder. 

"Why don't you go to hell now, and beat the rush." A small blond girl glared back at her as she threw the vampire back. Karis' eyes glowed a rich amber. 

"Slayer." She growled and launched herself at the chosen one. 

"Oh, no need for formalities, you can just call me Buffy." The two fought across the already destroyed club, kicking and punching their way outside to the alley. Buffy's friends gathered around, offering what little help they could. Quickly the fight was thrown in Karis' favor, as the slayer proved to be no match for the strong vampire. The resident witch, Willow, stood to the side watching the fight, despertely thinking of a plan to turn the odds back in her best friends favor. 

"Move away." She muttered, concentrating on throwing the two girls to opposite sides of the alley. She gasped when Buffy was thrown head first into a nearby dumpster, as Karis remained still, unaffected by the witch's magic. As the slayer was knocked unconscious, Karis eyes danced witha merry amber glow as she advanced upon the prone girl. The Scoobies ran to the fallen girl, trying their best to protect her from the demon. Spike stood in the forefront. 

"Stay away from her, Karis." He threatened. Karis stopped abruptly, and placed a hand over her unbeating heart in mock suprise. 

"Me? Hurt the little ol' slayer?" She snorted, "Not likely, I just want you, Spike. The slayer will live, she has more important matters to deal with than fighting your battles." She stopped, her face screwed up in mock thought. "But then again, you always did like a woman fighting for you, though didn't you?" Spike's eyes began burning yellow at Karis last taunt. "I have no fight with her, Spike, just with you." 

Spike's fists clenched by his side, as he struggled not to hurt the vampire in front of him. No matter how angry he was at her, he knew she had every right to kill him, and would if properly provoked. Besides, his bloody poof of a sire would have a fit of unsoulled mayhem if he ever found out that Spike had hurt his demon's annoying chit of a temptation. "What are you doing here, Karis?" Karis stopped and threw her arms up in the air and began pacing in front of him. 

"The $50,000 question!" Karis studied the scene in front of her amusedly. "I've not come for you, if you can believe it. I have more pressing matters to deal with. You are a nice disruption though." The watcher, who had been silent this entire time, standing off to the side, holding his shoulder dejectedly as his slayer's life was held precariously in the balance, gazed sharply at the newcomer. 

"Who are you, and why did you come?" He spoke sharply. He couldn't fathom why Spike was so scared of this chit, when he, the watcher who thought he knew every thing about the vampire's history, couldn't place her within the pages of his precious books. Spike barked a short laugh and glanced at the watcher. 

"You mean, you don't recognize her from your bloody watcher diaries?" At Giles blank look, he continued with a drawn out sigh. "This is_ Karis_, man. Does that name ring a bell? This is the chit who is one of the oldest vamps in the world. Hell this girl has been a demon, a human twice and I suppose, since she's in front of us, a vamp twice as well." He turned back to the vamp amusedly watching Giles' face change from an angry mottled red to ashy white in mere seconds. "How are you here anyway? I left you for dead beside your man's drained body over a hundred years ago." 

"Karis." Giles whispered. "I can't believe it. This.. this is nothing but a legend, a myth." 

"Haven't you figured out by now that a myth in the hellmouth is everyone's worst nightmare?" Buffy sat up, rubbing her head and blinking through blurry eyes at the scene around her. 

Karis shrugged and lit another cigarette, concentrating on the smoke intently before giving Spike an answer. 

"I told you, darling, you should have made sure I was dead before you left." 

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Sunnydale -- Giles apartment -- 2:30 am.

The scoobies arrived at Giles in typical fashion. Loud. Giles shut the door after the last one and leaned against it, his hand rubbing his forehead in a way the bespoke a massive headache. He jumped when there was a rap on the door he was leaning on and sighed. Spike and Karis. The female vamp promised to play nice long enough to tell the gang what she knew about the newest threat to humanity in the hellmouth before beating Spike to a bloody pulp. 

Spike walked through the opened door, unhindered by the barrier stopping Karis. She stood there for a few seconds before coughing loudly. 

"Hey, Watcher?" Karis called to Giles, "No invite means no info!" Giles rushed back out, a bit embarassed about leaving her there. 

"Come on in, Karis, I'm terribly sorry about that, one would think I would remember that by now." Giles escorted her into his den where she came face to face with the scoobies. Buffy and her friends stayed quiet to assess the situation with this new killer. Anya, however knew Karis well and gulped and shrank back in her seat nervously. 

"Uh, Karis. Hi." She sputtered. "Never thought I'd see you again." Karis turned towrds the voice and smiled disinterestedly when she saw the ex-vengeance demon. Karis made a bit of small talk, explaining how she had died as a demon and had returned to life as a human, then had gotten turned again. Anya grinned a little, as she realized Karis didn't remember about her owing the vampire her life and about 150 pounds. Karis ignored every other person in the room except for Giles and Spike. She had to get a read on them first, get a handle on what they wouldn't tell her, before she would seek out what they _would_ say. 

A few minutes of shop-talk revealed the plans behind a new attempt of an Apocalypse. Karis was forthcoming with the information as she knew it. She was like spike in this small way. It's not that she wants to be a goody-goody, but she liked the world as it was, and didn't relish the thought of the whole world being thrown into hell. 

"So wait, Glory, the really annoying baddie with the fake hair is back?" Buffy turned disbelievingly to Giles, "Didn't we already kill her?" Giles nodded wearily as Karis rolled her eyes. 

"You killed the body she was inhabiting. Newsflash people, she's a god?" Karis spoke sarcastically. "From another dimension yes, but still a god. It takes just a little bit more than that to kill her." 

"Th-That means she could use me again?" Dawn stood in the doorway, staring into Karis' eyes. "She would want to open that portal again?" Karis smiled softly, for the first time without malice or sarcasm. 

"So you're the key, huh. Those monks certainly knew what they were doing when they wanted to protect you." Karis spoke quietly, almost to herself, then rose from her chair and walked over to the girl who was trying to hide that she was frightened out of her wits. Spike moved behind Dawn instinctively to protect her and Karis ignored him, instead focusing on the girl. "There's a good chance she will, but no one here is going to let that happen." Karis focused intently on the young girl's eyes, swearing softly when she saw the destruction that occured the last time Glory made an appearance. "No one will die this time, Dawn. I will promise you that." Dawn's eyes filled with tears as she nodded and turned around, burying herself in Spike's arms. Karis eyed Spike mistrustfully for a moment, then abruptly turned back to the group. 

"How do you know that nobody will die?" Buffy stood before her angrily, hands clenched at her sides. "How can you give her false hopes like that?" Karis regarded her cooly for a moment then sat down in a forgotten plush chair, lounging with one leg over the chair's arm. "Am I the only one that has a problem with this?!" 

"Simple, I won't let anyone die." Karis replied, ignoring the louder part of the outburst as her mouth twitched into a smile. "I'm not giving the girl false hopes, I'm promising her that it will never get to the point where you have to choose which one of you will be brave enough to jump into the portal to shut it. It won't get to Glory having Dawn, nor will it get to Dawn being at the top of that extremely ugly tower. We will be prepared, and Dawn" She turned to the girl still resting within Spike's embrace. "There will be no running away this time. You will stay put." Buffy bristled at the vampire telling her sister what to do, but Dawn merely nodded and snuggled closer to Spike. 

_ What a world,_ Spike thought amusedly as he watched the slayer get pissed off at Karis and try to ignore exactly what Dawn was sitting on,_ when a slayer's sister feels safer with vampires than she does with her. _

"Uh, Karis, just me being curious here, but how is it that you know all about what happened? and our names, what we are?" Oz spoke softly, not wanting to upset the volatile vamp, but wanting to know just the same. Karis chuckled and turned her gaze to the short multi-colored haired guy leaning on Willow's arm. 

"I was a demon once who could read minds, and get into people heads. It kinda stayed with me when I turned back into a human and later, into a vamp." Karis explained. "Most Vampires and demons usually have one thing about them that is carried over from their previous existance as a person or whatever." Spike nodded in agreement. 

"The poof has his evilness, and I don't care what you have to bloody say, Buffy, he was evil as a human. That carried over into his bad self." Spike chuckled to himself and gazed quickly down at Dawn lowering his voice so even Karis had to strain to hear it. "Me I suppose I have my love and loyalty left over." Dawn glanced up at him from her position by his chest, and smiled wanely before turning her somewhat worried gaze back to Karis. 

"And Karis has her little witchiness, and her mind-games to make her unlife complete." A new voice said from the background. The voice was female and familiar. Every single person whipped around. In the doorway stood Glory. Willow rose from her chair, and chanted a boundary spell around the living room quickly. She didn't want the God to come in and steal the Key from them this soon. Glory rolled her eyes at the young witch's magic, and stepped easily over the barrier. "You think that can stop me little girl?" Karis appeared behind Will, fully vamped. 

"No, but I'm thinking this can." Karis shot a blue fireball at Glory's chest making her fly back into the yard. Before Glory could rise to her feet, Karis and Willow were there constructing a small container to put her essence in. Once it was ready, Karis gestured with her hand, throwing Glory into the box, and Willow flung it back into the far reaches of the earth. 

"Nice shooting, kid. You've got some major skills." Karis nodded approvingly, impressed at the power the witch was exhibiting. _Guess I seriously underestimated her._

"Okay, you guys, We don't have much time, I think it'll take about 2 days for her to get out of the box and another 3 to get back here, hellgod or not." Willow spoke urgently leading the Scoobs into the house. 

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TBC 


End file.
